Why today?
by leith
Summary: It just isnt Beka's day. Chapter 5 has at last been added.
1. Where is everybody?

**Disclaimer:** Andromeda doesn't belong to me; it belongs to Tribune. This was written for entertainment only and no money has been exchanged (unfortunately).

**Spoilers:**None

**Archive:**Probably but please ask me first anyway.

**A/N:**This is Beka's point of view and all words not in speech marks are her thoughts. I'm not so sure about the ending of this chapter but tell me what you think. More will follow if you like the story.

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God, I feel awful, only 5 more minutes until I can leave here and go curl up with a nice hot water bottle. I wonder if I should ask Dylan if I can leave? Nah, he'd just want to know why and I don't want him to think I can't cope with a little bit of PMS. Oww OK make that a lot of PMS but I can handle it just…3mins 20secs.

"Captain, the Heldr's are hailing us."

I heard Rommie say cutting through my reverie. She looked at me sympathetically we both knew that this would mean, I probably couldn't leave for ages now, the Chief Ambassador just loved long chats.

Dylan on the other hand looked insanely cheerful, yet another world wanting to join the newly restored commonwealth.

"Put them through," he said smiling widely.

I swear I could throttle him sometimes.

Finally, I can't believe anyone can hold a monologue for that amount of time. Now I have a headache too. I'm not going to do anything else today even if it means Andromeda getting blown up.

"Rommie lock my quarters and engage privacy mode."

Mmmm, lying down is good. It won't matter if I close my eyes for just a few minutes.

Fine more than a few minutes but who can blame me? That's much better, but I need coffee, or chocolate, or food, or coffee and chocolate and food. Hey maybe Dylan or Harper want to come have dinner with me.

"Andromeda where are Harper and Dylan?"

"…"

"Andromeda, Rommie?"

Okay. No answer. Lets go up to the bridge probably just one of Harpers inventions gone wrong again and knocked out comms.

No one here,

No one in engineering,

Or the brig,

Or hydroponics,

Or Obs-deck.

Where the hell has everyone gone; and couldn't they have picked a better day to go missing?


	2. The Rescue begins

**A/N:** I think I might have got the timeline completely wrong with who is on the ship etc. but I'm afraid that this is how it's going to stay.Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Please let me know what you think of this chapter.

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**Chapter 2**

Okay think. You were with Dylan, Rommie Harper and Trance on the bridge. You left the bridge. You fell asleep. You can't find anyone. Does this help at all?

Different approach, I'll go back up to the bridge and look through the logs manually. But first things first, med bay, someone has got to invent better painkillers!

Everything looks normal, the Hadr's hailed us, we listened for eternity, I left the bridge, another transmission received, a… just a second that doesn't look like a normal hail. Where did it come from, why is someone sending a transmission from the middle of the desert? It seems to have suppressed Andromeda somehow, there's nothing in the log after that.

So if I can get Andromeda back up I can scan the area and see if there's anything here. I wish I had Harper here to help I hardly know where to begin.

/Several hours later…/

Finally almost there and… Rommie at last!

"Rommie. You have no idea how long I have been trying to get you working, do you know what happened to the rest of the crew?"

"I can't detect them on the ship but there is a faint signal from my avatar on the planet but, that's odd, it seems to be coming…"

"From the middle of a desert?"

"Yes how did you know?"

"You received a transmission from there just before your AI shut itself down."

"My memory banks seem to be faulty. I can remember a hail, Dylan said to put it on screen then, they were fading and now it's only you here. All the details seem to be missing I can just remember vague images."

Well this is weird Rommie has forgotten something. But fading, what could have caused that? Any tesseract or other transporting devices would have to have been quite powerful, wouldn't they? Oh well worth a try.

"Could they have been transported somehow?"

"Maybe, in theory it would be possible but I can't tell from my data logs. All I know is that my avatar appears to be in the middle of that desert but my scanners don't detect any buildings or features on the surface."

"What about under the surface?"

"My scanners don't seem to be able to penetrate,"

"Which means there's something there,"

"Yes."

"Great so I'll go down in the Maru and check it out. You stay here and look after yourself."

I still get confused sometimes with the whole hologram, screen, ship thing but normally I'm alright with Rommie, the avatar, except when she talks with herself then I just get confused all over again and she doesn't seem to fare much better.

"I'll see you later then hopefully with everyone else."

"Be careful, if you can't do it by yourself come back up here and we will try to sort out some semblance of a plan."

"I'm sure I'll manage. Bye."

Some people have no faith in my abilities; believe me, for making me go through all this when I should be relaxing, those guards stand no chance.


	3. Got Them

**Chapter 3**

Owwww, I swear that these cramps are starting on purpose at the worst moments. Trying to do a nice quite landing and what happens? They seem to get 10 times worse suddenly. They had all better be in a lot of trouble because I probably set of every and any alarm around and could have guards crawling around all over my lovely Maru. At least I'll be able to see the entrance.

I can't see anyone out here, hey wait a sec' is that a trap door in that dune? Oh no they've seen me, hey mind out you could hit someone shooting wildly like that. On the other hand shooting directly at someone and hitting your target exactly like… that, works perfectly.

"Thanks for showing me the entrance."

This place is like a maze I'm sure I've been here before, its giving me the creeps too I haven't seen anybody around. This scanner for tracing Rommie's signal seems to be malfunctioning. I went left last time so I'll try right this time.

Bingo, finally other people. Too bad for them that they're wearing big guns and happen to be monitoring video feed of cells which are holding my friends. If I get just a bit closer I can have a clear shot.

A couple more steps … hey you should warn people if you're going to put laser tripwires across the corridor. Unluckily for you I used to be a thief, you can't catch me out that easily. I can shoot two from here that means the third will be on his own and won't have too much warning. Oh god he can't just try and shoot me can he, he has to play the hero and run at me. His loss.

At least I'm probably going in the right direction now; if there are guards it means they're guarding something, or someone, simple. And there is only one way out of this chamber, added bonus.

Okay there might have only been one exit out of that room but now I'm lost again Rommie's signal does seem to be getting stronger though, but I still cant contact them. Hmm, right or left.

"Ip, dip, sky blue, who's it…"

"Beka?"

Result, I knew that rhyme would work like a charm. I have never been so glad to hear Harpers voice. It's time for my painkiller top up and I left them on the Maru.

"Harper which direction are you, are you near the others?"

"Yeah, we're all here Beka and we're basically okay."

"Just keep talking."

These corridors don't seem to stop I seem to have taken hundreds of twists and turns and they don't sound any nearer. What sort of place is this?

At last they were all here in a long row of cells, their captors had even been kind enough to leave the keys nearby, no doubt to taunt them but hey, don't ever look a gift horse in the mouth.

I let them out one by one Dylan last being the furthest away.

"Come on guys we have to get back to the Maru as quickly as possible."

They don't have to know that it isn't because I'm concerned for their safety but because I now feel nauseous from the pain. You'd think I'd be used to it by now wouldn't you.

We got out much quicker thanks to Rommie's perfect memory and enhanced senses. I'm glad to be back out that place was really giving me the creeps. We didn't meet another soul and we still don't know anything more about the captors or their complex, which just seemed to be mile after mile of grey monochromatic corridor. We did take the time to download files from the computer in the guard's room that might give us a clue when we get back to the Andromeda.

Finally onto the Maru now where did I put the first aid box?

"Hey has anyone seen the first aid box?"

"It's just here, I'm afraid I took the last painkillers for a very light headache I seem to be developing, don't worry we'll be back on the Andromeda in about an hour if you'll just fly us out of here."

I can't believe it. He took them. For a Very Slight Headache. Then he asks me to fly them out. Yes that's right step back, and again, now run out good boy. At least he wasn't stupid enough to ask if I was alright. I'm going back to bed they can fly themselves out of here.

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**A/N:** I'm afraid that's not the end yet. Who kidnapped them? Why? Will Beka ever feel better? Please review and tell me if you think it's worth doing another chapter because if no one is reading this then I have several pieces of coursework, which I should really be concentrating on.


	4. Underapreciated

**A/N** Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Please keep on doing so.

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What the hell! Okay maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make them fly us out of here, what keeps hitting us? I thought this planet didn't have any large-scale defence systems. Then again it wasn't meant to have a huge maze of an underground base in the middle of the desert.

"Can't you avoid any of these missiles Dylan, the Maru isn't a High Guard ship you know!"

"I wasn't the one who got angry for no reason and decided not to fly the ship was I? Don't worry though I'll soon have your precious ship back to Andromeda, the missiles aren't that powerful."

He knows that isn't the point, I don't care if the weapons barely leave a scratch, its sill my ship being fired upon. And angry for no reason, the nerve. I wonder if I can persuade Rommie to turn off his hot water, or persuade Harper to program her to shut off his hot water hmm.

"There we are I told you we would make it back safely."

Idiot…

"Beka please don't stare at me like that again,"

How about his coffee maker breaking down too…

"Especially don't smile like that."

Captain Terrific doesn't seem to be able to live without a proper coffee. That will teach him to be so damn perky about hails.

"Harper what's wrong with Beka she's looking at me weirdly?"

"Uh oh. I'd stay out of her way for a few days, you've made her real mad, she's definitely planning something."

"I'll just go then. Come up to the bridge when you… can look at me without seeming predatory. We still need to find out why this happened."

Why we? I rescued them. Single-handed I might point out, how come I need to help? I probably should though; they are my crew and if I don't Dylan will do the puppy dog eye thing. Damn he'll do the puppy dog eye thing if I stop his coffee. Why does he have cute puppy dog eyes? Hey Rommie's still here maybe I can talk to her about no hot water in his cabin. Nope she's leaving too I'm surprised she hasn't already figured out the whole dilemma in that huge brain of hers.

"Try the red capsules instead of those tablets, they're much better for PMS."

Even Rommie noticed, I must be bad this month. Alright I can do this smile, nicely, and go and find out who is trying to kill you this time.

We've been at this for two hours. Nobody on the planet is answering our hails and the files on the computer are so heavily encrypted that even Harper and Rommie haven't been able to crack them yet. Oh I stand corrected the fact that Harper came barrelling towards us at 50mp must mean they've finally got something.

Harper couldn't breath so Rommie's hologram popped up.

"I would have come immediately but Harper didn't want to 'spoil the surprise'. The base seems to have been built by the Hadr's government and had been receiving payments which stopped a couple of years ago. The payment suddenly started up again a day after we arrived at this planet, two weeks ago. It involves huge sums of money and the balance is added to every third day."

"Do you know what the money is going towards or what the facility does?"

"Not as yet this code is very difficult and breaking it is a slow process."

It must be hard if that's all they've got so far there must be an easier way than this. Was there nothing in the way the Hadr acted that gave us any clue? All they seemed to do was call us up at all hours to drone on in monologues. That was it I quickly checked over the logs again. There was always a slight undercurrent of code transmitting with the image and I had assumed it was some security issue but when I compared it to the last time we had heard from the Chief Ambassador I saw that though it started off the same it soon changed slightly and shifted, something none of the others did.

"Rommie look, what does this coding mean?"

"Analysing. I am not completely sure but it seems to affect my AI slightly."

"Could this be what made your memories of the crew disappearing seem sketchy?"

"It could, it's a definite possibility."

"So why use it this time why not all the other times that they have talked to us. Andromeda can you please analyse the differences between each time the Hadr have called and tell me the most important things that set this time apart from the rest."

"Why don't we just go and talk to the Chief Ambassador about what happened down there."

"He could have just been an innocent bystander, Beka. We mustn't jump to conclusions."

Innocent my ass, I still haven't forgiven him for making me stay on command for what seemed like hours.

"There are many small differences between the conversations but the main thing that stands out is this is the only time that all of us have appeared on the screen so the only time that the Hadr knew were all on the bridge. This could be the reason as there doesn't seem to be any other significant anomalies."

"So like I said why don't we just go down and talk to the ambassador?"

He's giving me that look I'll be in for a speech about how everyone is innocent until proven guilty etc, etc, etc. I bet that the fact I was the one who worked this part out has flown straight out of his mind. I know he will see I'm right eventually though.


	5. Finally

Chapter 5

Guess what. We got to the planet and the ambassador was unavailable and would be so for another 3 months. Surprise surprise. I think even Dylan might be starting to suspect that there is something wrong with this picture. Maybe we will finally be able to do this my way, that is to go in there, bring the Ambassador back to Andromeda and keep him there until he confesses to everything. I doubt Rommie would disagree with that plan but Dylan…

"No way."

"Why not?"

"It could cause a major diplomatic incident!"

"They locked you all up in a secret base paid for by the government. I don't think they will be that worried about diplomatic niceties."

See I can do puppy eyes too if I have to. He has to give in, he can't be that cold hearted.

"Fine but make the extraction quiet, and don't hurt him. Take Harper along."

I can do quiet I thought as I turned around and almost ran towards the Maru. Lets see how long you want to talk for now Mr Ambassador.

"We know it was you who ordered us to be locked p so you might as well admit it."

"…"

"So you can talk for hours at a time but cant make one tiny confession?"

"…"

"Please just make a confession so Dylan can do whatever he decides to do to you and I can get off duty."

"…"

"Fine be like that."

That sounded a little childish even to me but I didn't really care anymore.

When we got back to the Andromeda Rommie was standing to meet us smiling.

"I cracked the code."

"And…"

"The money eventually leads straight back to the Hadr military. The facility is apparently just a high security prison. They wanted to keep us there as they thought that the commonwealth would be a threat to the leading party's rule. We don't even need the Ambassador the evidence is all right there."

Then Dylan walked in.

"Thanks for bringing in the Ambassador but I did tell you it wasn't really necessary. You can go off duty now. I can handle it on my own from here."

Finally I can just rest. Mmm this pillow is so soft I can at last get some much-needed sleep.

"Beka wake up there's an emergency!"

End


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